Starganderfish

There’s three factors that change the equation a bit for me. All from The Lost Metal. Not sure of spoilers for this thread though so: With that in mind, Hemalurgic experimentation is pretty much essential for Scadrial future.

Having now read the Lost Metal and Tress of the Emerald Sea, my mind started bubbling with possibilities. My initial thought for Autonomy’s army was they must have used Trellium in some way - because Trellium has red spots .. gold and red...But Trellium is described as a silvery metal with red spots. Then in TLM, Marasi describes the Men of Gold and Red: TLM - Ch 60 - Marasi POV: “Thousands of inhuman soldiers with golden skin and glowing red eyes. Living statues. They carried rifles of an advanced design, and their stares seemed to bore holes in her mind. The men of gold and red had arrived.” The bodies are gold and the eyes are red. My thoughts: 1) In Tress, the Sorceress' army of "metal men" sounds very similar in function, if not precise design, to Autonomy's “Men of Gold and Red”. TotES - Ch 59: "Here Tress could make out the legion of golden metal men standing in ranks around the Sorceress’s tower. Outfitted with spears and shields, Tress could almost imagine them as men in armor with lowered faceplates. If only they hadn’t stood so unnaturally still." TotES - Ch 63: "The color of burnished brass, each one seven feet tall and carrying a spear with a glistening tip, they were an intimidating sight." TotES - Ch 64: "Even a semi-self-aware construct like an Awakened soldier relies on its instructions. They’re far more versatile than something running on a traditional computer program, but they’re also not fully alive." 2) Beings controlled or influenced by Trell typically have glowing red eyes. 3) Autonomy has access to weapons at least as advanced as Scadrial if not more advanced: TLM - Ch 20 - Moonlight: “You had gunpowder weapons and electricity before any planet in the cosmere aside from her core homeworld.” 4) Kalad's Phantoms are a version of Lifeless made of Awakened human bones encased in stone, in the form of massive warriors. Their stone bodies are larger than a human's, and they are faster and sturdier than other Lifeless. Build an army of Lifeless constructs (sculpted to look like men rather than armoured constructs) and encase them in durable metal rather than stone. Awaken them with corrupted Breaths wielded by an avatar of Autonomy and watch their eyes glow red. Equip them with advanced Taldain weapons. You have an immortal army of powerful soldiers under Autonomy's direct control. They operate “autonomously” but are precisely following their creator's every command. That suits Autonomy perfectly. In TLM, Moonlight describes Autonomy thus: TLM - Ch 20: "She claims she wants everyone to be individual, gives them each a little house that is distinctive from the others, but only in a way that fits her plan, her desires. It's fake individualism" I don't genuinely think Endowment is consciously involved, in spite of my click-baity title. More that her Breaths have been co-opted for the purpose. Alternatively, Autonomy may be Realmatically aware enough to be able to convert her own investiture into Breaths, similar to how Vasher can subsist on Stormlight and Trell hijacks Hemalurgy. To take it one step further, this is the most speculative part - Raysium (Odium’s GodMetal) is a bright golden metal. It naturally conducts Investiture, drawing it in from any source. Reversing the direction of a Raysium insert in a dagger causes the investiture to be expelled, suggesting it conducts in one direction only. Encase your LIfeless army in Raysium and suddenly any investiture used against them can be absorbed and stored in internally-mounted gems for later use (possibly to create more Lifeless constructs?). I'm 95% confident that Autonmy's armies are Awakened constructs, as I'm sure many others are as well. The timing of their appearance in the Lost Metal and the descriptions of the metal-men in Tress are just too coincidental to ignore. The idea of using Raysium is a bit wilder though. But, we've been seeing hints from various WoB's recently that Autonomy may be involved on Sel through the Fjorden religion (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/509-youtube-spoiler-stream-5/#e15951), and may have helped Odium, or at least look the other way on Sel during his Splintering of Devotion and Dominion. So hints of an alliance or at least a non-aggression pact. Raysium being gold fits the description, it furthers the idea that they may be working together in some way, and having the ability to absorb/channel Investiture makes it an amazing defensive material in the environs of the Cosmere. If you're planning to go up against Elantrians, Allomancers, Surgebinders or similar invested beings, being able to negate their Investiture attacks is clutch.

Not specifically emotional Allomancy, more likely a copper-cloud when he meets Marsh for the first time: Chapter 28: “Something emanated from him. A dread that crushed the soul like a hand around yesterday’s broadsheet. A … No, Wax thought. I do not fear this. I’ve stared down death already. Strangely, the sensation of dread evaporated from him. Had that been … emotional Allomancy? It was difficult to recognize in the throes of it, but it appeared obvious in hindsight. Yet this time it didn’t affect Wax as it did everyone else, including Marasi, judging by how pale her face had gone.” Pulling the vial into his hand and sporadically seeing metal-lines without consciously burning his steel (Iron), not feeling his punches as much as expected and enduring the cold water (Pewter), seeing through the mists (Tin), blocking emotional Allomancy (Copper)... It’s pretty obvious that he’s a full Mistborn now. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/509/#e15957

Well Riina’s gold/brass guardians are almost certainly Awakened Lifeless, just presumably metal rather than stone: Complex meticulous instructions, Breathing life (with a capital “B”) Thats not Elantrian magic, that’s Awakening. She’s familiar enough with Nalthian tech to hack Fort’s Speak and Spell, so acquiring Lifeless tech seems plausible. Given Brandon’s tendency to drop subtle clues and tie things together, makes me feel like Trell’s “Men of Gold and Red” are probably also Awakened Nalthian constructs, maybe enhanced with Taldain tech (didn’t WOB state that up until Automomy closed the system off, Taldain was one of if not the most advanced society in the Cosmere?) I can see technological cyborg/androids combined with Lifeless Awakening to make some pretty impressive “robots”, ones that aren’t hampered by that pesky independence or sentience of real people. Autonomous, but still controllable.

I think you summed it up perfectly for me. There's a distinct stylistic difference between Brandon's YA writing and his full adult stuff. Stormlight is firmly adult fiction - complex plots, a vast array of characters, intricate double blinds, and second-guessing. Reckoners, Skyward - these are Young Adult books. A smaller array of characters, simpler themes, easier to-follow storylines. Neither is better, but they are distinct. Mistborn has always been pretty well placed as "grown-up fiction." But this felt like it was veering too far back into YA territory. That, and the entire idea of Era 2 being a "happy accident" that didn't really fit into the over-arching plan, was really evident. It really felt like Brandon kept wanting to do something big and cool with this story but kept having to pull himself up and "save it for Era 3". Instead we got a lot of Cosmere fan service (which I'll admit I really enjoyed) and roughly half a plot. I kind of feel like the entire Era 2 series could have been a much tighter trilogy of books. I did really enjoy the insight into Wayne's character from his POV sections - it kind of makes you re-assess his earlier appearances in Era 2, and puts a new spin on the character. I liked Wax taking a bit more of a back seat. I still don't particularly enjoy Marasi as a character or her storylines - she really only shined here as a foil and support character for Wayne. Steris is always fun and nice to see her come into her own. I particularly enjoy seeing Sazed embracing his darker side a little with the lies and manipulation. I kind of feel like he's learning to not get pulled between Ruin and Preservation. After All Ruin and Preservation don't really exist anymore, they've been merged and should be viewed in a different light. Feel's like he's re-interpreting the dual-shardic intent to be Harmony/Discord now., which might be easier to balance.

Ah, so that's pretty clear that Frost isn't a shard. Thanks for clearing that up. It does raise an interesting point as to who is the non-human shard? We haven't met many sentient non-humans in the Cosmere, and apart from the afore-mentioned Dragons, most of them date from after the Shattering Roshar seems to have more than it's share of intelligent species, and it seems to have a history before the Shattering that other worlds lack. I haven't read White Sand so unsure if there's any sentient creature from that. None of the other cosmere stories seem to fit. What else could this mysterious non-human shard be?

Curious why the assumption that Frost isn't a Shard? The second letter is very cagey and deliberately vague and obtuse about how it speaks of Shard's, and of both Hoid and Frost - it's very much playing what they call the "pronoun game" (The purpose of the game is usually to obscure someone's gender or identity to the audience (or other characters - TV Tropes) Knowing that Frost was at the shattering along with Hoid, and Hoid was offered a Shard, maybe Frost was offered one as well. If Frost is a Shard, the one who just wants to hide and survive and is not a Worldhopper, he's probably holed up on Yolen and keeping it hidden from the rest of the Cosmere. My guess is that Hoid and possibly Frost where pulling the strings behind the Shattering (a bit like Kelsier and the Lord Ruler - Hoid and Kelsier have a lot in common) Post-Shattering, Hoid refused a Shard but Frost accepted one. This new knowledge and power revealed ... something... to Frost about Odium, the fate of the cosmere, and a possible Big Evil on it's way, and this scared him to the point he pulled into his shell and is basically trying to hide now. Hoid has an inkling what's coming as well, and is working to get the Shards either reunited or at least working together, and want's Frost to pull his head out of the sand and help, before Odium splinters any more shards and destroys their last hope to defeat the Big Bad. Assuming there is a Big Bad of course.